May 11
Remember the country western song ? Detour there's a muddy road ahead.
Two weeks ago after months of Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD) . " Irregular cells showed up in the bone marrow biopsy. Thankfully through osmosis your calls, cards, prayers and positive thoughts reach me with every bump along this muddy road.
The immediate approach is stop the steroids and immune suppressants, twice a week visits to Methodist to evaluate what the donor cells are doing to destroy blasts, and experiencing what GVHD is like without immune suppressants. Good news -my brain seems more normal? Challenge - my skin looks and feels like a Gulf Coast sun burn complete with itching. Onward on the muddy road.
4 comments:
Onward indeed! a detour often brings new perspectives, enters a different landscape, and offers new horizons. Your family and friends will follow the route and be there with you all the way.
Sally, you looked radiant Mother's Day weekend. Wish it were not so cumberson to post photos here!
L., c.
Sally,
Last night you were in one of my dreams. I never remember more than "slivers" of my dreams and the slivers usually disappear shortly after I awake, but in this one there was some sort of outdoor entertainment event perhaps in Zilker Park. We (the audience) were being entertained by adorable children and young adults who were singing and dancing. The colors were vivid, lots of yellows, reds and greens, and I was struck by how happy and animated everyone was (audience and entertainers alike). We (the audience) were seated on folding chairs, and the only "fly in my ointment" was that from time to time I would stand to get a better view of this or that at which time my folding chair would disappear. During one of these occasions, I heard and then saw you flit across the stage. You had on shorts and sneakers and were smiling broadly (from ear to ear as it were). You looked wonderful and announced that you were getting ready to "play". Play what, wondered I. A piano flickered through my mind although I had never associated you with playing the piano. And then I awoke. The lasting memory from the dream is a "radiant" Sally probably triggered, in part, from Carol's description in the previous comment.
Here's to "play" (and all that the word implies) in all of our lives, and especially in yours.
a
Bob and Family, I'll never forget running the Capitol 10,000 with you and Sally. It was sleeting that morning and so cold they opened up the Capitol so we could go inside and warm up. The race started and off she went running way ahead of us - we could never catch up! As it was, that was my fastest time to run that race, trying to catch up with Sally and stay warm!
I also remember the last campaign -how sad we all were - she seemed relieved to have it over. I could not believe she had lost. I could not believe anyone could not see how selfless she was about the Austin neighborhoods and community. But she picked up her life and moved to Houston, a big gigantic loss for Austin. I remember when she flew in to Umlauf Gardens that time to kick off Beverly's race - a breathe of fresh air and an omen that Beverly would win for neighborhoods. Thanks to Sally, there are not 10 story buildings across the street from where I live - she fought to keep the zoning at 3 stories and my neighborhood lived through the building of a huge apt. complex, buffered by trees and now pretty quiet.
I can hardly believe she is gone - a big big loss for both the Houston and Austin communities and I know for you, Bob, and children. May peace be with you.
You write very well.
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